The six BBC Young Musician 2024 semi-finalists are:
- English/ Swedish violinist Maya Broman Crawford-Phillips (17), currently studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey
- Surrey-born harpist Jamaal Kashim (17), a Royal College of Music student in the Junior Department
- Violinist Shlomi Shahaf (17), born in Israel and raised in Ukraine, currently studying at the Purcell School
- Cellist Hugo Svedbert (16) from Bournemouth, a former member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
- Pianist Ryan Wang (16) from Vancouver Canada, and currently studying on a music scholarship at Eton College
- Pianist Jacky Zhang (16) from Surrey, a piano and composition student at the Royal College of Music
The semi-finalists made it through to this stage of the competition from a group of 12 quarter-finalists. They were announced today [Sunday 6 October], during the broadcast of the second and last quarter-final of the competition, on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer.
Introduced by saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam – who presents all the rounds of BBC Young Musician 2024 – the quarter-finals were held and recorded in July at The Great Hall, Swansea University (Bay Campus). Having taken place in the same venue also in July, the semi-final of the competition is due for broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 13 October.
The BBC Young Musician Grand Final, recorded at Bristol Beacon on Tuesday 24 September, features three finalists competing for the title, as they each perform a concerto accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Ben Gernon.
Highlights of the Grand Final will be on BBC Two on Sunday 20 October, with the event broadcast in full on the same date on BBC Four, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.
Judging every televised round of this year’s competition are trumpeter Alison Balsom, pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench, and multi-instrumentalist and broadcaster Hannah Catherine Jones.
Also returning in Autumn 2024 in its 10th Anniversary year is BBC Young Jazz Musician, focusing on some of the most talented up-and-coming musicians and singers on the British jazz scene. During the final, taking place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Saturday 23 November as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival and broadcast on BBC TV later in the Autumn, four finalists will compete for the title, all hoping to follow in the footsteps of BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022 winner double bassist Ewan Hastie.
BBC Young Musician 2024 and BBC Young Jazz Musician 2024 are managed and produced by BBC Studios Music and Entertainment Wales and the Commissioning Editor is Stephen James-Yeoman.
I was very disappointed to see how only one of the incredibly talented young women was chosen, and how dominated the finals are by piano and violins. Not a good message to send out.
The new organisation and administration are very poor and the panel apart from Alison are not up to the calibre of previous judges.